Made Tech is where we are because of our people. We see the importance and value in progress and self-improvement and encourage a culture of openness and sharing because it creates an enjoyable and productive environment. With learning at the crux of everything we do, we wanted to improve software delivery within our own organisation first and create capable mentors to help everyone in the team progress.
We therefore decided a new approach to employee development was needed. The idea was to provide clear paths for improving ability both internally and in customer teams. While reviews and continuous feedback systems work on a general level, we wanted to find the most effective way of increasing skill parity across a company, so we trialled a skills matrix.
Embedded capabilities
Enterprise lacking skills required for cloud migration
For all the excitement and talk of cloud it seems the reality, at least in enterprises, is a little less glamorous. With more and more executives backing the move to the cloud, more and more organisations are booting up large migration programmes. Unfortunately their aging IT departments lack the experience required and organisations are forced to depend on service providers to fill the gap.
The Digital Classroom
From keeping in touch with friends, to hailing a cab, and even allowing us to control the temperature of our houses from our phones, Technology has become increasingly pervasive, changing the way we do things and how we interact with one another. Contrary to what some would think, Education was not left out of this revolution. In recent years, an incredible number of digital tools and platforms have seen the light of day which try to improve how people learn, how teachers share their knowledge and allowing pedagogical resource providers to reach an ever increasing number of people. But in Education, things cannot change as rapidly as in other sectors because the cost of doing something wrong has long lasting consequences. Pedagogical practices have been refined over the years and introducing changes requires a lot of thought.
Recruiting a tech team
Recruiting the right group of people is one of the most important parts of building a top software delivery team. In this article, we take a look at some things you should consider whilst recruiting, and a few things that you should try to avoid.
Learning From Mistakes
As software engineers, we’re faced with new problems and challenges every day. No matter how well we know a programming language, how many projects we’ve worked on throughout our careers or how much time we’ve spent creating repeatable solutions to common problems, there will always be something new that requires critical thought.
No Uncle of Mine
In August, one topic sparked a lot of debate on the internet in general, and in the Tech industry in particular: the so-called “Manifesto”, written by James Damore, then engineer at Google. While this blog post won’t be about the manifesto, some events that occurred after it came out prompted me to write this. But before looking into it, let’s go over some of what has been said and written since then.
Polyglot disciplines
As a polyglot software engineer, I have discovered some disciplines which I have found beneficial to me. My hope is that readers of this article will find the experience I share here profitable to their endeavours as polyglots (or indeed as monoglots).
How to run a successful retrospective
At the end of an iteration it’s good to take some time to reflect as a team to assess what worked, what didn’t work, and what could be improved upon. This can result in future iterations being more efficient and productive, as well as increasing happiness in the team.
Morale, Recognition & Reward
Morale is closely related to job satisfaction. When morale is high, your team is happier, more productive, and more likely to believe in your organisation’s vision. On the flip side, not enough (or any) praise for a job well done, dealing with a difficult clients, or heavy workloads can significantly lessen morale, and sometimes lead to higher employee turnover.
Creating Environments That Promote Communication
In any organisation, one of the most powerful ways you can empower your team is to give them an environment that allows them to communicate freely at all levels. At Made Tech we actively encourage every member of the team to initiate or join any discussion that interests them, whether it be giving their opinion on how a part of the business runs, or introducing a new way of approaching how we work.
